Alex - SSC - FA12

Gloria Steinem (1934 - )
Gloria Steinem was a feminist reformer, political activist and

writer through the 1960’s. She believed that women should be able and

should want to do something more than clean their house and be there

for their children and husband. She was brought up with married parents,

however they divorced, and she became responsible for the well-being of

her depressed mother. Steinem, after giving these duties to her older sister,

graduated from Smith University and began her studies abroad in India,

where she became accustomed to the teachings of Gandhi.
In America, she fought hard as a feminist, aiming for fair work for

women, abortion, and other economic and political powers she thought that

women should receive. At this point in time, women’s ambitions were really

held no higher than being able to make a good meal and wax the floors of

the houses, but Steinem believed that they were just as good as men when it

came to work, the economy, politics, and all facets of life. In 1964 she wrote

an essay called, “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation,” showing her

support of the civil rights struggles that the blacks were going through at this

time, as well. Throughout the 1960’s, Steinem supported anti-war, as well

as abortion rights, and numerous other causes. She created Ms. magazine,

which became the focal reading piece of feminists in the early 70’s. Gloria

Steinem was really the face of feminism and political activism for females.

As her website puts it, “She us particularly interested in the shared origins

of sex and race caste systems,” meaning she wanted to know why everyone

who was black or everyone that was a female was automatically put down

from the start.
“Sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the

primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups,”

- Humanism quote, one of her most famous.

- Aimed for fair work for women

- Supported abortion

- Feminist, political activist

- Was against the war in Vietnam

- Supported black civil rights movement

- Believed that women should want to do more with their lives

-Face of feminism in the 60’s/70’s

http://books.google.com/books?id=DCo-

z42tNZ0C&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=gloria+steinem+pr

imary+sources&source=bl&ots=4t57lpcj4y&sig=b21BvY_M

fDF7tv_QXtYNgAs6AtA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p1nvUIKyMo-

y0AGTzoDYDA&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=gloria%20steinem

%20primary%20sources&f=false
http://www.gloriasteinem.com/who-is-gloria/
http://freeinfosociety.com/media.php?id=91